Qrow couldn't help but feel some small amount of hope as he watched Ruby and Ozpin, the two now sparring with gusto, with the only indication of what had happened just beforehand was the headmaster being completely soaked from head to toe. He hadn't heard what Ozpin had told her, but he had a solid idea of what it'd been, and he knew that it wasn't something he revealed lightly. Not even because it needed to be kept hidden for the sake of their mission but because, as much as he played the stoic, Qrow knew it was something deeply personal and painful to the old headmaster.
The brief sound of chattering teeth drew Qrow's attention away from the sparring to his fellow partner in standing on the sidelines, Ice Queen's little sister, who was currently clenching her teeth in a grimace while shooting him poorly disguised glares.
"Are you sure you don't want to get yourself dried off? The vault isn't exactly the warmest of places, even before taking into account a Maiden flexing her powers and you deciding that running into her rainstorm was a good idea." Qrow could certainly feel the bruises forming where the Schnee girl had smacked him after he'd football-carried her away from Ruby.
Weiss snorted, "Not a chance. I promised Ruby I'd stay by her side no matter what, especially around those who've hurt her and continue to have foul intentions. I… we trusted you once, and look what it did to her! I won't make that mistake again." The girl was shaking, and it wasn't just from the cold.
Qrow took a swig from his flask, savoring the warm burn of the alcohol before his red eyes bored into her. "I'm glad to hear that."
Her blue eyes widened, "W-what?"
"I'm glad Ruby has someone like you. Someone who can help give her a perspective on things who isn't also involved with Ozpin." Gods knew Qrow couldn't trust his own judgment on the matter after what had happened with Ruby.
Weiss remained silent, though her glare softened to an inquisitive quirk of her brow, and Qrow continued.
"I imagine Ruby or Yang told you about their mom, yeah?"
"They've told me, yes. They've always sounded very fond of her; she's certainly Ruby's biggest inspiration, and I can tell her passing has affected them. But why…" Her voice trailed off as her brow furrowed, and the proverbial gears clearly began turning.
The glare that was nearly omnipresent to her and her sister returned, "She was involved in this, wasn't she? That's why she died; she was a Maiden, and some request by this little cabal of yours got her killed." Her voice began to rise, "You got her killed, and you're doing the same with Ru-"
Qrow cut her off, "Summer was involved with us but not with the Maidens. She was just… exceptional. As for her… disappearance, Ozpin wasn't involved; Gods… trust me, I wish I knew where she'd run off to, why she'd run off, but… it certainly was related to our… activities."
"So Ozpin exploited her good nature just like he did with Ruby. Where are you exactly going with this?" Weiss sneered.
"I'm getting there, snowflake," Qrow chided, though there was an edge to his voice, "My point exactly is that we all were just as involved and committed as Summer or had our own issues blinding us. We couldn't stop her; we couldn't see when she'd eventually compromise her own safety for the mission. Ruby inherited all that from Summer and… I can see you keeping that from happening."
"If I really were able to recognize she'd be giving up too much, I'd have stopped you all from hurting her like you did! Instead…" Weiss's shoulders sagged, "I was just as much of a rube as you. I enabled it; I helped Ruby go through with it all. How can I protect her when I was just as complicit unless you think I'll be giving the same kind of help you did?"
Qrow sighed, "I know how you feel, how the grief and blame begins to pile up. How tempting it is to run away to protect the ones you love when you hurt them, but in actuality," His red eyes narrowed, "you're just doing it to protect yourself from getting hurt again."
He cut off a forming retort from Weiss, "I'm not saying that's what you are doing right now, but I know how it starts, how it ends up compounding in on itself. You just end up hurting those you are close with, and you find yourself missing out on years of their life. So blame yourself all you want, but don't use it as an excuse to run." Like Raven had, like Qrow had.
She let out a thoughtful hum, as her expression turned pensive before looking back at Qrow, "That's… fair. I suppose I wouldn't want to end up emulating someone uncouth as -" Her jab was cut short as a shiver passed through her body.
Qrow snorted, fishing into his pocket, snagging out a vial of red Dust, and handing it to Weiss. "I know you're pretty good with Dust, so here, use this to warm yourself up. If you are going to be keeping an eye on my niece, do remember to take care of yourself. Otherwise, you really will be emulating this 'uncouth' individual."
"Ha. Ha." Weiss replied, tone flat in a sarcastic deadpan even as she swiped the vial from his hands and poured a slight trickle of aura into it, causing it to gently radiate heat. The two turned their attention back toward Ruby and Ozpin's duel. Although the tense silence from before returned, Qrow couldn't help but notice the conspicuous lack of poorly concealed glares from the Schnee.
/
Ozpin had decided after a few hours that Ruby should get a break even though she'd wanted to stick around and keep training, and for once, Weiss agreed with the old headmaster. Both because her partner needed the break and because it was unbelievably cold, and Weiss desperately wanted a proper change of clothes, which is why the two were walking hand in hand across Beacon's campus towards their dorm room.
Ruby seemed to be thankfully back to some amount of high spirits, evidenced both by the return of her usual level of energy, as she practically was pulling Weiss along at some points, and also because the weather over Beacon was unusually sunny for autumn. The fact that Weiss could now reliably use the weather as a literal barometer for her partner's mood was both useful but also utterly insane, and Weiss chose to focus back on the veritable flood of ideas pouring from Ruby's mouth rather than thinking more on the lunacy that was their lives now.
"…and then I was thinking I could maybe use Crescent Rose as a like, maybe a lightning rod? Make lightning shots, perhaps, or lightning swings? That'd be pretty cool, huh Weiss?" Ruby asked, her silver eyes glittering with the same enthusiastic intensity she had when talking about new things to upgrade her weapon with.
"As long as you don't electrocute yourself… or, more likely, accidentally end up zapping one of us." Weiss teased, flashing a smile of her own.
Ruby paused, tapping her chin in faux thoughtfulness, "True, true…" Her face broke into the all too familiar grin she had when she was inventing one of her utterly insane plans, "but speaking of the team, imagine all the team attacks we could do involving my Maiden Powers!"
"What."
Ruby gesticulated wildly with her other hand, "Think about all the possibilities Weiss! Like, we could use my wind powers and your dust to, like, do all sorts of stuff! Imagine a gust of wind, but you make it explosive with your red dust! Or even better, it's a flaming tornado! Or a freezing one, too!"
"That's…" Weiss paused as her initial response of 'ridiculous' melted away as she actually put thought into it. "That could actually work." Gods, Ruby's insanity truly was contagious...
Ruby beamed, "That's why you're my partner, Weiss. You properly appreciate my genius!"
Weiss playfully flicked her partner, "Don't get ahead of yourself now, dolt."
It truly did warm Weiss's heart to have some level of their familiar routine back. She hadn't even known how much she'd missed it until Weiss had thought it might have been gone for good. She didn't know what the old headmaster said, but at least he seemed true to his word of trying to assist Ruby. Of course, Weiss couldn't give him too much credit. He'd been the one to hurt Ruby, after all.
"Hello again!"
Weiss whipped her head to the right, and her smile immediately grew brittle. Approaching them to ruin their good mood was Jaune, and of course, like some lovesick puppy, Pyrrha was with him.
Ruby responded with a friendly wave, "Hey, Pyrrha, and um," her face screwed up into a confused frown, "Jaune?"
"Hey, Ruby!" Jaune replied, blissfully unaware that Ruby likely hadn't even recognized him for a second.
"It's wonderful to see the two of you, but shouldn't you be training for the tournament?" Weiss's tone was infused with the same well-practiced faux kindness she'd practiced all too well when dealing with the high society vultures and reporters back home.
Pyrrha smiled, "I'd trained earlier, but me and Jaune were just spending some quality time together and walking around the campus since everyone was out in town. Don't want to overexert myself if I end up being called after all."
"Besides, it's Pyrrha, after all! She's gonna kick their butts anyways!" Jaune added, proudly patting his teammate on the shoulder.
"Oh, Jaune, cut it out," Pyrrha responded mirthfully, a faint blush coloring her cheeks.
Weiss clenched her hands tightly, suppressing the faint tremble in her hands. They were so insufferably sweet, so happily oblivious, and Weiss loathed seeing it.
"Sooo, what have you two doing out here?" Pyrrha said, her emerald eyes glancing at Ruby and Weiss's intertwined hands.
"We were, uh, training." Ruby's response was quiet, her silver eyes looking at Jaune sadly.
They finally had one good moment, and these two had to show up and ruin it and Ruby's mood!
"Training? I thought you two were on a " Jaune was cut off as Pyrrha squeezed his shoulder.
"Jaune, don't be rude." She chided.
"I know but… Owwww." He responded, rubbing his shoulder.
Pyrrha's tone quickly grew apologetic. "Oh, I'm sorry."
What was that about? Well, at the very least, the two weren't nosy. Weiss looked to her partner, who seemed just as confused as she was, and she shrugged her shoulders.
Pyrrha's attention turned back towards the two of them. "We won't be in your hair for long, but…If I could borrow you for a minute, Weiss, I just want to ask you something."
Of course, she wanted to talk with her. Of course. Better to get this over with than make a scene.
Weiss turned to her partner, "Is that fine with you, Ruby?" She asked, even though she already knew the answer.
Ruby smiled, squeezing Weiss's hand, her silver eyes glittering warmly. "Weiss, it's fine; I won't die just because you don't pay attention to me for a few seconds."
Weiss nodded in response to her friend before following Pyrrha, the two of them ending up in the shade of one of the many trees planted along Beacon's walkways.
She briefly looked back at Ruby, who was mainly standing still, focusing on Jaune as she quietly listened to him babble about something before shifting her attention to Pyrrha.
"So what is it?" She asked testily.
Pyrrha sighed, shoulders sagging as her eyes looked downwards guiltily. "I know we were interrupting, but… you've been angry with me for the past few days, and I wanted to just… talk about it."
Weiss wanted to yell at her. Tell her it was because it should have been her, that Ozpin should have chosen her, not Ruby. It was her fault for not getting chosen and being used as a threat by Ozpin to lure Ruby into becoming a Maiden to protect her friend. But that would make a scene, and more importantly, Weiss knew it would upset Ruby.
So instead, she held her tongue, "It's nothing to concern yourself with Pyrrha."
Pyrrha continued, undeterred, "Did I do something? Or hurt you in some way? If I did, I'm… sorry, and I'd be happy to try and make amends I…"
Wait… she was blaming herself?
Weiss sighed. Looking at the concern and grief painted across Pyrrha's face, it felt like she'd kicked an overly tall puppy.
"I…" Weiss's eyes darted away guiltily, "There's just been some things going on, and I've been…" she trailed off.
Weiss thought back to what the old drunkard had said. She may not have been running away, but she certainly had been hurting one of her friends because she was angry with Ozpin's actions, with her own inaction. It was horribly misplaced, and Weiss should be better, was better than that level of stupidity.
Weiss looked Pyrrha in the eyes, shifting uncomfortably on her feet, "I'm sorry, Pyrrha, I shouldn't be taking this out on you, and… you didn't do anything wrong at all, it really is just me."
Pyrrha sighed in clear relief, and the way she straightened up made it look like a weight had been removed from her shoulders. "Apology accepted, Weiss; I'm glad I hadn't done anything wrong and… I won't pry into whatever's going on with your team, but just know that we'd be happy to help if you want."
Weiss smiled at her, the first genuine smile she'd given to Pyrrha in the past few days. "Thank you, Pyrrha, and we'd tell you if we could, it's just.. personal business."
Pyrrha waved over at her partner, likely signaling they'd finished up, "Of course… I won't keep you from Ruby any longer, but…" A friendly smile crossed her face as she turned to leave, "Congratulations, with Ruby Weiss. If things work out between me and Jaune… maybe after the festival, the four of us could go on a double date?
Whatever train of thought Weiss previously had immediately come screeching to an utter halt, and only her complete and utter surprise stopped her from going completely slack-jawed, let alone responding.
Pyrrha thought she and Ruby were… dating? Where could she have even gotten that idea? It was utterly preposterous! Weiss's feelings for Ruby were entirely and one hundred percent platonic; neither of them had been doing anything to suggest otherwise. Nothing whatsoever. Pyrrha must have had her brains rattled from one of her fights, or her lovesick ogling over Jaune was making her see romantic intent in everything. That clearly must have been what was happening.
/
Hey y'all! I did say I was getting back on track even if this one was a week late due to some medical stuff, but also because a single scene ballooned into a whole chapter's worth of stuff, and I moved the stuff I previously had written to the next chapter. Hope y'all enjoy some Weissy goodness and thoughts, criticisms, and juicy speculations are appreciated. All the love to my helpful beta.